Cooking Kosher On A Budget
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Entertaining: Shabbat Lunch
10 Strategies for Budget-Conscious Fun
By: FELISA BILLET
Setting the Shabbat lunch table reminds me how grateful I am to be Jewish. Making a special meal in honor of the day gives me a built-in opportunity to entertain. When else would I visit with friends? Try new recipes? Bring out my favorite silverware?
Granted, inviting company has the potential to be overwhelming, physically draining, and most of all—if I choose to go all out—financially burdensome. But with hospitality as one of the mainstays of Judaism, I want my kids to grow up in an environment where guests are a regular part of our weekly Shabbat experience.
To actualize this dream without breaking the bank, I’ve experimented with different ways of entertaining on a budget that literally afford me the opportunity to have company as often as I want.
The first step is to break free from the social pressure of keeping up with the Joneses (or Cohens). Not feeling incumbent to create the “ultimate Shabbat meal” or to “do what others do” is liberating. Having confidence in my food prevents me from overcooking or serving too many dishes that the table groans. Most people don’t expect a multi-course meal; they are happy enough not to do the dishes.
As a budget-conscious host, Shabbat lunch is the perfect time to entertain because the informality of a mid-day meal makes it simple to pinch pennies. Think buffet. Think potluck. Think dishes with minimal ingredients.
If those visual aids don’t work, try these fool-proof strategies.
1. It’s Just Lunch
The first thing I do is steer away from serving too many (read: unnecessary) courses. Since many people eat at a Kiddush, I skip the appetizers and go straight to a scrumptious main course. Guests appreciate leaving lunch feeling full but not stuffed, and I appreciate not having to fill people with unnecessary food before I bring out the main course. This also cuts down on excess leftovers.
2. Mask Your Budget With Creativity
Once I realized I don’t need to serve multiple entrees, three kinds of kugels, and tons of salads, I decided to douse my meals with creativity.
I add originality to the laid-back ease of Shabbat lunch by serving unexpected types of food. Sometimes I’ll choose a picnic theme and make summer salads and finger food, or go Mexican by serving tacos, refried beans, and toastada salad.
My favorite theme is to serve vegetable-based, bistro-style dishes like wraps, whole grain salads, and a make-your-own salad bar featuring a big bowl of greens, little bowls of chopped seasonal produce and pantry staples (nuts, dried cranberries and croutons made from leftover challah) and homemade vinaigrette. Putting these on a rotating plate always makes the serving fun.
Not only does creativity prevent me from buying expensive cuts of meat and chicken (which I’d rather save for a formal Friday night or holiday dinner), but guests enjoy having a different type of culinary experience.
3. Nix the Kid Food
When I spend so much time in the kitchen, why should I relegate kids to a lunch of chicken nuggets and plain pasta?
Not only is it healthier for kids to partake in the same home-cooked foods the adults are enjoying but it means less work (and things to buy) for the hostess.
4. Chulent is a Main Dish
When I make chulent, I am generous with the meat or chicken so I don’t have to spend more money on an additional entree. I started eliminating a second main dish when I realized that during a normal weekday lunch, no one eats two entrees, neither at home or a restaurant.
5. For Dessert, Less is Best
Most people can get by without two cakes, a fruit platter and a candy dish. When I spend time baking, if I bring extra dessert, whether fruit, nuts or candy, to the table, it detracts from the cake or pie I prepared with much effort.
One yummy dessert, whether baked goods or fresh fruit, will suffice. Anything additional, like a sweet sauce or simple cookie, should complement, not overshadow the main dessert.
6. Go Dairy
This may be an “unorthodox” piece of advice but consider preparing a dairy meal, such as lasagna, eggplant rollatini, or a pesto pasta salad. As long as you pick your cheese right, milchig entrees tend to be less expensive than serving meat.
And having ice cream, pudding or cheesecake for dessert will be a welcome change. Just warn guests in advance that lunch will be dairy.
7. Plan Your Menu Based on Sales
Before I open my cookbooks, I log onto the websites of Kosher.com and three local supermarkets. By checking out the weekly specials, I compare sales and plan a menu based on the lowest prices. This important step prevents me from shopping without a budget-conscious game plan.
8. Be Flexible
If I’m in the mood for potato salad but cucumbers are 4 for $1, I’ll make cucumber salad. When carrots are buy one bag, get one free, I’ll make carrot cake instead of a fruit crisp, doubling the batch and freezing one for later.
If I plan a menu based on my mood instead of shopping the sales, I am guaranteed to exceed my budget … by a lot.
I find it easier to shop the sales and to stick to a constricted budget when my attitude is one of confidence. I feel I can branch out and prepare different types of produce and to dabble in various styles of cooking. The more flexible the menu, the easier it is not just to shop, but to cook, the sales.
It is fun to experiment with new vegetables, making them star ingredients. When butternut squash, for example, goes down to .29/lb, it is time to google “butternut squash recipe” and try new soups, salads, and main courses that feature this root vegetable at its best.
9. Reuse, Reuse, Reuse
When I prepare Friday night dinner, I often think of how I can intentionally turn the leftovers into elegant dishes for Shabbat lunch.
Some of my favorite tricks include deboning the chicken from the soup (I serve the broth with matzo balls) and turning it into a curried chicken salad for lunch. To make potato salad, I combine two Friday night sides of roasted herbed potatoes and steamed green beans, which I toss with a little mayonnaise, mustard and sea salt. When I serve grilled zucchini and eggplant on top of rice, I fill the leftover vegetable slices with a salad made from the rice, roll and serve as mini-vegetable wraps. The possibilities are endless.
10. Go Potluck
One of the easiest ways to minimize expenses is to get friends involved. Through organizing a potluck meal where different people bring salads, side dishes and dessert while the host provides the entrée, a fun, informal atmosphere is created. And all it costs is the entrée (Okay, and now we have to do the dishes).
Create a routine where a group of friends get together once a month for a potluck Shabbat lunch. Rotate who will host. Besides having an opportunity to socialize, this is an easy way to stick to a budget while spending an afternoon with friends.
Recipe: Tuna Salad with Chickpeas and Dill
Savings: $27
Bonus Budget Tip: Minimize costs even more by purchasing cans of tuna in bulk.
Shabbat Lunch for 8 Under $25
TOTAL: $23.45 [plus you get a bonus of a large pot of chicken soup]
Menu
FIRST COURSE
Make-Your-Own-Salad-Bar
Roasted Herbed Potato and Green Bean Salad
Dilled Cucumber Salad with Mango
Sesame Bowtie Pasta Salad
Curried Chicken Salad
SECOND COURSE
Espresso Granita with Chocolate Sabayon
Chocolate Chip Biscotti
Q&A with Jamie Geller and Felisa Billet:
Q: How have guests responded to your “unorthodox” Shabbos lunch menus? I fear people feel like it’s not Shabbos without gefilte fish, potato kugel and chulent so I get caught in the trap of making the staples plus many more dishes when flexing my creative cooking muscle.
The first thing to realize is that it’s just one meal. If someone doesn’t like the food, it’s not like they’re stuck at your house forever.
But, when I think about it, I can’t remember the last time someone didn’t thank me for giving them a different type of eating experience. Yeah, kugel and chulent are great, but when you have it every week, I think people appreciate something different.
A chef I interviewed once told me that unequivocally good food will always taste good. If someone isn’t fond of “Mexican” per se, when the meat is seasoned right and the vegetables are fresh and tasty, how could it possibly be bad?
You have great points about not overdoing it, with the courses, the amount of dishes, the desserts. I find that we live in a society of great excess with the notion of the bigger, the better. Why do we all fall prey to that trap when going all out doesn’t even sound like an inherently “Jewish” concept?
We do that when we loose confidence in our selves. We forget that guests are thrilled to have someone cook for them. They really don’t care how many dishes you bring to the table.
I came to this realization when a friend of mine, who is a fantastic cook, invited my family for lunch. She prepared an array of appetizers, four types of chicken and meat, never-ending side dishes and a buffet of desserts. I felt really bad she put in all this effort, only for people to leave the table with the awful feeling of having over-eaten, and we didn’t even make a dent in the food. And to top it off, she seemed cranky and overworked.
I wish she would have had confidence to scale down, especially for something that is so not worth it and like you said, “not Jewish.”
Q: What’s the best way to go about organizing a monthly potluck Shabbos amongst your friends?
Find two or three friends who would be interested in this type of experience. Find out who will host and divide responsibilities for the rest of the food (challah and grape juice, entrée, side dishes, and dessert). Give it a try and if it works, you can invite more people to join and set up a schedule. It’s great fun.
Recipes: Espresso Granita, Chocolate Sabayon, Chocolate Chip Biscotti
Next Challenge: Meal Planning Madness
Author Bio:
- FELISA BILLET is a freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, including USA Today, Jewish Action, American Jewish Spirit, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Pregnancy, and My Midwest. Felisa is at work on a cookbook, The DIY Kitchen, which explains how to make supermarket staples from the comfort of home. She is a mom of three kids and lives in South Florida. - Read more...
